This is my neighborhood and I bike thru that intersection almost daily. My best guess is the cyclist was going west on the southside Aberg sidewalk. The motorist was was heading north on Huxley and made a rolling (stop sign) right onto eastbound Aberg. In those type of turns the motorist looks left, but never looks right - the direction the cyclist was coming from.
Most cyclist in this area who are heading west either are coming from the Starkweather Path or thru the Oscar Meyer parking lot. It is the difficult during rush hour to cross Aberg to get to the Aberg bike lane so many continue biking west on the the sidewalk. Mike Rewey -------------------------------------------------- On 8 Oct 2012 at 14:52, Robbie Webber wrote: Yeah, I sort of knew that. And I do appreciate that Bike Fed does follow up on these things. In general, I just find it frustrating that we often have so little info for bike crashes - even less than for many pedestrian crashes. With MV vs. MV crashes, news report - which again are just rewrites of the police report - at least note direction of travel for both parties. And yes, I'm going to guess that for legal reasons the driver also is not likely to say, "He was on the sidewalk, and I just didn't see him." So if the bicyclist cannot speak for him/herself, not much is going to be included in the police report. You generally have a pretty good idea after a MV vs. MV crash which direction both parties were headed. Not so when a bike is involved. Robbie Webber Transportation Policy Analyst State Smart Transportation Initiative www.ssti.us 608-263-9984 (o) 608-225-0002 (c) [email protected] On Mon, Oct 8, 2012 at 2:32 PM, Dave Schlabowske <[email protected]> wrote: As many of you know, it is one of my least favorite duties as Communications Director for the Wisconsin Bike Fed to report on all traffic crashes that involve the death of a person riding a bicycle. The crash that killed 21-year-old Tyler Knipfer is still under investigation, so the MPD public information officer nor the records department could release the crash report (mv4000e) to me. I have a request in to the investigating officer for more information, including direction of travel, turning movements, direction of impact, etc. I will also try to get a copy of the report from the Medical Examiner. The mv4000e, supplemental narrative and ME's report are usually sufficient to properly report on a bicycle crash. Until I have that information, I have decided to wait to report on this crash, When I get that information, I will share it on the Bike Fed blog. It is possible that the news media don't have any of this info yet either, and they are just reporting off the MPD press release or based on interviews and observations at the scene if they were there. Yours in cycling, Dave Schlabowske Communications Director Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin 414-431-1798 414-736-2209 [email protected] www.wisconisinbikefed.org On Oct 8, 2012, at 2:15 PM, Robbie Webber wrote: Yes, in this case my guess is that internal injuries would have been a more likely cuase of death, although certainly head inuries could have been severe as well. I think it's just SOB to include whether the person injured was using safety equipment: Helmet for bicyclists and motorcyclists (Or skateboarders, rollerbladers, etc.) Seat belt for MV drivers and passengers. Also pretty common in stories about MV crashes: whether speed and/or alcohol were considered contributing factors. Almost all these stories are written verbatim from police reports. The reporters are simply writing what they pull off the MPD (or other law enforcement) news feed. (Whether this counts as "journalism" or even "reporting" is another story.) Use of safety equipment and whether common contributing factors for crashes were suspected (speed/alcohol) is probably on the checklist for the police report. What I'd like to know more about - especially in the case of serious bicycle crashes - is whether the bicyclist was riding on the sidewalk, against traffic, without a light at night, etc. Also, this story does not say what direction the bicyclist was headed just before the collision. These are also major contributing factors in bike crashes and would be much more informative to many of us. Obviously riding on the sidewalk is not illegal in many area of the city, but it is a contributing factor in crashes simply because motorist do not look for bicyclists on the sidewalk when turning and/or passing through a crosswalk. This is especially true when the bicyclist is riding the opposite direction from the adjacent traffic. Since the news reports stated that the driver in this case did indeed make a turn right just before the crash, I'd like to know where the bicyclist was as well. Robbie Webber Transportation Policy Analyst State Smart Transportation Initiative www.ssti.us 608-263-9984 (o) [email protected] On Mon, Oct 8, 2012 at 1:51 PM, Darryl Jordan <[email protected]> wrote: As reported in the State Journal: " The crash happened at 5 p.m. at Aberg Avenue and Huxley Street. The bicyclist was pinned under a Chevrolet Lumina, which a fire crew lifted off of him. The bicyclist, who was not wearing a helmet, was taken by helicopter to UW Hospital." I wear a helmet practically of the time. However, since the reporter is not a medical examiner nor an eye witness to the event, how can he make a judgement that not wearing a helmet is a contributing factor in the cyclist's death? Granted, in most traffic accident stories, reporters and their editors let it be mentioned that drivers that are injured or killed were wearing seat belts or not. However, the cause of the accident happened just a short moment or two before the collision when inappropriate decisions were made by one or both parties in the heads of the responsible parties whether they were protected by head gear or harnesses or not. Just an observation on blind judgements made by the media and police and other authority figures. DJ Read more:http://host.madison.com/news/local/crime_and_courts/bicyclist-dies-after- getting-pinned-under-car-wednesday/article_f9387fe0-1097-11e2-9100- 001a4bcf887a.html#ixzz28jaFvZ1v From: "Meiers, Steve" <[email protected]> To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Sent: Mon, October 8, 2012 8:04:30 AM Subject: [Bikies] cyclist dies http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/crime_and_courts/bicyclist-dies-after-getting-pinned- under-car-wednesday/article_f9387fe0-1097-11e2-9100-001a4bcf887a.html Steve Meiers Safety educator (608) 267-1102 Box 2986 Madison WI 53701 [email protected] _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org
